Learn How To Build And Fly Your Own Drones

A quadrotor drone. Screenshot Colorado-based RefactorU bills itself as an educational experiences company, and is largely aimed at teaching people things like web development and game design.

The company's latest course offering is a bit of a departure from the norm. It's a class on how to build and pilot your own drone — a flying robot.

The date is yet to be determined, but the $1,750 class will be held held every Saturday over a 10-week period in Boulder. The fee includes all the components you'll use to build a drone from scratch and instruction on all aspects of flying it.

We spoke to Sean Daken, founder of RefactorU, to learn more.

"There are build-your-own-drone kits out there, but our aim is to reduce the trial and error time in getting yours to fly," said Daken. "I miss flying RC stuff, so that's my diabolical motivation, that I get to play with drones all day. They're a synthesis of things we care about at RefactorU — the creative hands-on building of something, then using it to do creative things like aerial video and photography."

The course will be taught by local hobbyists within FAA regulation, and Daken is working on getting personnel from a nearby Air Force base involved as well. Students will learn about the various models of drones and the technologies that can go into each, such as FPV, or first-person view, in which a drone beams back live video from its flight, letting you see what it sees as it moves.

FAA regulation on commercial drones is a bit murky for now, and it's a problem that Daken readily acknowledges: "The FAA's perspectives are behind the times," he said. "This class will largely be avocational and for fun."